The Dragon Light Part I
by Grey Lady
Summary: Well, I didn't write this with Tamora Peirce in mind, but I guess it works...anyhow, no one you'll recognize is in it (yet), it takes bout 20 yrs before the Winding Circle series, and it's just the first of manyparts so r/r


The Dragon Light  
  
A/N  
When I first wrote this, I didn't have Tamora Pierce in mind. But I was reading it, and if I change the place names, it does work. It takes place in her second world, I'm not sure what it's called but it's the Winding Circle series (I never got past the second book, but oh well.) It takes place, oh, twenty years before everything else, and starts in Runa, Anderran. And I've kinda made up my own temple up by Syth. Anyhow, please r/r, because it's just the start of many parts, which I'll post, if you like this one.  
  
  
Anora didn't struggle much, not yet at any rate. For the moment her hands were held to tightly to do anything, but if the gaurd thought she was weaker than his friends had warned him he might loosen his grip. They were nearly there when she felt his hands soften slightly. Anora didn't hestitate. She broke his grip with a quick pull, then grabbed, twisted, and pulled as was the order of the city streets. By the time he stopped howling, she was long gone.  
  
It wasn't the most graceful way of fighting, but if Anora had learned one thing from her many moons on the city streets was that grace counted as little here as a nickle in a nobles life. Charm and grace didn't help you survive. When Anora was younger, her tutor taught her the theory of mortal evolution versus that of immortal. Mortals are ruled by survival of the fittest, so only those who can adapt to a change in enviornment can survive. If Noble Hill to Runa streets didn't count as an enviornmental change in which adaption wast nessecary, Anora wasn't sure what was.  
  
Angels were different. They were immortal, and without a need to adapt or survive like humans. They had no reason to do anything for themselves, so they were entirely benevolent. Anora thought she had seen and angel, once, but she was not sure she believed in them anymore. That was a long time ago in another place, and no angle had swooped down and rescued Anora from a new life as a street urchin.  
  
It was getting dark, so Anora pick out an inconspicous looking spot on the awning over a side door in an alley. Awnings always made comfertable beds, not as comfortable as her old bed but more than some she could find. The down side of having somewhere comfy to sleep was that it reminded her of home, the one she used to have, and that brought regrets. Not regret that it was no longer home, but regrets about her parents, about never getting along with her mother and never agreeing with her father. She loved them, but she had never liked them, and now she had no clue where they were.   
  
Anora wrapped her scarf tightly around her, shivering at the cold. Runa was a cold city, but only if you didn't have heating. The streets weren't heated.  
  
She turned around, so she could stare at the stars, wondering at their feiry brightness. Maybe they were where the angles stayed, the angles who had not condescended to save Anora, but just gazed down from the stars as Anora gazed up at them. Or maybe the angles were stars.  
  
The stars she pondered were suddenly blocked out. Hands, more than could belong to one person, grabbed her. The guards must have learned from their painful mistake, because the first thing they did was to flip her over and tie her hands behind her back. This time she struggled tooth and nail, but with her hands tied it was to no avail. Someone, one of the larger guards, didn't bother with hauling her down to the prison but rather slung her over the saddle of his horse.   
Anora sooned learned better than to try and make him drop her, because when she wiggled free he did drop her, and it was rather painful to land on the pavement off of a horse so tall. The second time she fell the street urchin heard a faint crack somewhere in her right arm. After that is was too painful to move, so other than a random kick or punch with her good fist, Anora let him take her to the prison.  
  
It was still night when they entered, but Anora could see fairly well by the starlight, just enough to see that the gate they entered, though a gate, was not that of Runa's city prison. Though with a lock, it was too small, and though it had spikes on the top it was far more pleasant looking then the iron of the prison gates, painted a lighter color which the light would not permit her to recognize. Another guard at the gate post shined a latern at them, revealing three guards and a small thief. With a start, Anora realized the guard that had so ungracefully dumped her on the saddle in fromt of him was none other then the one who she had thought had been suffiecently disabled.  
  
"Another one? How many do they want? At least some of them will be gone soon." The gatepost guard said in disgust. "Anyhow, there's room left in Barrack 4, so you may as well take her there."  
  
All three guards dismounted. One of them pulled Anora off the horse, the same one that had carried her, and pulled her across the snow past several long, gloomy buildings, stopping in front of one just as she was beginning to grow weary from lack of sleep and trudging through snow. He untied her, but didn't bother to watch her as he unlocked the door. Anora didn't run. There was probably nowhere to run to.  
  
The door was at last opened, and the guard turned to her. It only took her a couple seconds to realized he expected her to go inside. Anora did, head held high, but not without aiming a hard kick at his ankle. She never saw his reaction. The door was closed behind her.  
  
It didn't look like a prison. Not a pleasant barrack, but not a prison either. Not only were there mattresses and blankets, but all five other occupantants were teenagers like herself. One bed was left in the corner, and Anora took it without hesitating. She could wait until she was entirely rested to escape.   
  
She woke from troubled dreams as the first light streamed through the barred windows of the barrack. Anora was not the first one up, she could see a girl at the far end of the room struggling to get knots out of her long, black hair. She saw Anora looking at her and looked startled for a moment before realizing it was yet another occupant. Standing up, she tiptoed over quitely.  
  
"You new?"she asked. She had the accent of someone from the far east, which explained her fairly dark skin and black eyes. "What are you in here for?"  
  
"Probably stealing; they didn't tell me." Anora frowned, remember the rights her tutor told her arrested people were supposed to have. "You?"  
  
"My uncle, who was my guardian, was accused of spying and sending information to our home in Olart."  
  
"So you got hauled in?" Anora was sympathetic. "What is this place, anyhow?"  
  
"It's a temporary 'home'for minors. You stay here for six moons, and then if nobody wants you you're sent to jail."  
  
Anora shuddered, reminded of the kennels in which dogs were kept, but asked instead, " What do you mean, if nobody wants you?"  
  
"There are a few people that like to adopt convicted minors for whatever reasons, but mostly it's just the government corperations."  
  
"What government corperations?" Anora shuddered, for although slavery had been outlawed she wondered if it counted for criminals.  
  
"You can be recruited for the army or navy for two years, or you can be sent to one of the schools and later serve the government for two years."  
  
Anora didn't like that. She didn't want to serve the government. "Can you escape from here?"  
  
"You can, but I wouldn't suggest trying it, specially not before you do something about that," the girl said, pointing to her arm. Anora looked down and rembered falling off the horse last night. She had forgotten about it, but reminded pain shot up her arm.  
  
"I'll try anyway. No climbing, right?"  
  
"If you're willing to go through the sidegate their isn't, but you have to be careful of the guard," the girl said. "Just curious, but what's you're name?"  
  
"Anora. You?"  
  
"Julianna. If you want to go past the side gate, wait by the bushes until someone comes through. I think a Mage is coming in today to look for students. The guard will have to check for passes, so you can sneak out while he's doing that."  
  
"How do you know all this? I mean, you haven't escaped," Anora told her.  
  
  
"I don't want to escape," Juliana said, as though entirely obvious. "I'd only been here a couple months when my uncle got arrested, and I don't know my way around."  
  
"But how do you know how to get out?" Anora repeated.  
  
"A girl who was caught again told me."  
  
"What... happened to her?"Anora asked, worry creeping into her voice.  
  
"She's sleeping right over there," Juliana said while pointing to one of the pallets where a tall, blonde girl slept.  
  
Anora breathed a sigh of relief. If there had been a punishment for escaping she might of lost her nerve. Resolved to leave, she asked, "How do I get out of here?" She meant the barrack.  
  
"They leave the door unlocked during the day so we can come and go as we please, but they do a head count at lunch so you probably want to leave right after," Juliana added helpfully.   
  
Anora smiled at her, and the smile transformed her from a dirty, grimy street urchin to the Countess she had once been. "Thanks," she whispered.  
  
"No problem. I should warn you, though, if you're caught it lowers you're chances of leaving this place," Juliana smiled too, but her's bordered on worry. "Be careful. You might want to sleep for awhile so you're totally rested."  
  
"Yeah." Anora took her advise, and wiggled back into the blankets with as little movement with her right arm as she could manage. With sudden inspiration, she tore off a piece of the blanket and wrapped it around her wrist, stabalizing the break at the barest minimum for the pain caused in accomplishing it.  
  
She heard a voice; a guard's voice, but it was dark and she couldn' see him. Pain shot up   
her arm as someone grabbed it. She'd been caught!  
  
Waking up with a start and sweat trickling down herface, she was greeted by sunlight streaming through the window. Anora sighed with relief. She hadn't escaped yet, and she hadn't been caught. Looking around the room she found only one other girl there, and recognized her as tthe one Juliana had pointed out. Gathering up her courage, she asked,  
  
"What time it?"  
  
"A bit past noon," the girl replied shortly.  
  
"Has the guard come in and checked yet?"  
  
  
The girl looked up in realization. "Yeah. Are you trying to escape?"  
  
Anora nodded, tying her hair up intoa messy bun. "Why didn't you ever try to leave again?"  
  
The girl didn't ask how she knew. "I tried twice and was caught both times. It wasn't worth it to try again."  
  
Anora didn't reply. Making sure the guards had not taken the gold coin in her boot, Anora stood up and started to leave.  
  
"Wait." The girl stood up hesitantly. "If you're going to escape, make sure it's the really tall guard at the gate. He's the only one unobsevant enough to let anyone through."  
  
"Thanks." Anora gave a brief smile, and left.  
  
Finding the side gate wasn't hard, and there were so many people wandering around she was inconspicous. It took her no more than a few minutes to find and hide in the bushes. Looking at the gate post, Anora realized happily that the guard was exceedingly tall, but her happiness was short lived. Another guard, the very same on that had taken her here last night, came and joined the gate post guard. Fuming with the annoyance this guard had caused her several times over, she was forced to listen to their conversation.  
  
"Shawn, right? Anything new happening?" The tall one asked, grateful for company at his lonely post.  
  
"I'm getting transfered," the newcomer said wearily.  
  
"You are? When?"  
  
"Tommorrow. Master Christoph sent ahead that he needed two more guards at Belseri, so we're leaving with him and whatever 'future mages' he picks."  
  
"Who's the other guard?" The first one inquired, desperate for news of any sort.  
  
"Sanders."  
  
"Sanders? He'd kill the kids before they ever reached the place."  
  
"I know." The world wearniness of one sick of life entered the guards voice. "I don't know why they transfered him." His voice rose. "I don't know why they transefred me-"  
  
He was cut off by someone knocking at the gate. The tall one said hurridly, "Just a   
second." He undid the locks on the gate, then bowed awkwardly as the petitioner entered. The other guard, after a moment, bowed too as the gate opened further, but not far enough for Anora to see from her spot in the bushes.  
  
A women appeared. Anora decided it was the person they bowed to. She was pretty, but not in an obtrsive way, and she had a slight strictness about her that demanded respect. The guards were facing away from the gate, talking to her.  
  
It was now or never, Anora decided. Crawling stealthily out or the bushes, she creeped along the wall until she was right by the gate. Drawing a deep breath, she stole through the gate.  
  
And into someones chest.  
  
The shock of running into something that she hadn't expected to be there knocked her over backwords, causing the two guards and the woman to look at her.  
  
"If it isn't my friend from yesterday," the second guard said in relatively good humor, offering her a hand up. Anora took it, abliet grudgingly, and turned to the person she had run into.   
  
His aura sturck her back. Not a visible aura, but one that stuck here brain rather hard. Something happened, and the aura dimmed enough so she could see.  
  
He was tall, and slightly imposing, with dark eyes and a wry smile. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Leon Christoph."  
  
"Anora." She smiled sarcstically, green eyes flashing.  
  
"No last name?"  
  
"No." Anora wasn't about to tell him anything.  
  
"You might want do something about the about your arm," a dry voice behind her said. Anora turned around to see the woman smiling so slightly it was hardly visible.  
  
The woman was short, so she had to stand on her toes to whisper into the guards. Anora, though with better hearing than most, could not hear what was being said. At last the second guard nodded, and motioned for her to follow him. Every hope of leaving she bid a sad farewell to as she followed the gaurd unhappily.  
  
"Don't you ever stop trying to run away?" The guard asked.  
  
"No. What did you expect? You know, no one's told me what I've been accused of. That's one of the citizens rights."  
  
"Well aren't we the perfect countess." The words held no malice, just amusement. Anora gave a smile, her first real smile in awhile, at the irony of it.  
  
"Yes we are," Anora muttered under her breath. The guard didn't hear. More loudly, she commented, "This isn't the barrack." The building they were coming up to was larger, and slightly more friendly with its white plasterd walls and rose bushes.   
  
"It's the kitchen." With mock galllantry, the guard opened the door for her, a grin dancing around his out. Anora sneered slightly but walked through.  
  
"Lunch is over," the guard told her off handedly. "But Master Christof wants to meet with you in an hour, so you should probably eat now."  
  
"Why?" Anora asked before she could stop. Niether the manners she had learned in her previous life or the street wise of the streets had taught her to control her tongue. She frowned, mentally rebuking herself.  
  
The guard lifted an eyebrow, passing her a bowl of thin soup. "That's for him to know."  
  
Anora took a large gulp of the soup, cringing as she swallowed. She looked up a the guard, who was still waiting. "I'm perfectly capable of eating this by myself," she told him, an air of someone used to ordering people around. The guard's eyes twinkled good naturedly.  
  
"Whatever you wish, lady." With another mock bow, he spun on his heel and marched out.  
  
Relieved that the guard had finally left her alone, Anora looked around at her surroundings. Five or six long tables were lined up across, each propotionally neat and spaced out. Though the guard had claimed lunch was over, there were still several figures in the room. Anora looked at them curiously. Two guards ate at the far end of the room, each stubbornly silent as they belatedly viewed the morning paper, every once and awhile gruffly switching sections. A young women sat at another table, no longer eating but with her nose buried in a book. Closer to Anora, a boy not much older than her was scribbling on a napkin. Intrigued, Anora slurped up the rest ofher soup and crept up silently behind him.  
  
"I think basilisk's have longer scales," she told him glancing over his shoulder. The boy jumped and whirled around, crumpling up the paper in the same motion.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked suspicously, his arm moving slowly to his left side. Anora frowned, realizing he probably had a knife hidden beneath the folds of his raggy clothes.  
  
"Anora," she told him, glancing uneasily at his hand. She hated knives, or anything sharp, for that matter, with a passion, even after half a year on the streets.  
  
The boy relaxed as he followed her gaze, dropping his hand. "I'm not going to attack you," he said grudgingly. "At least not here, they'd take away my knife." He indicated the two guards, who were glancing their way suspiciously. He grinned at Anora's uneasiness. "Not from the streets?"  
  
"I lived there!" Anora said defensively. "I just...the way some people feel about spiders, I feel about knives."  
  
The boy lifted his eyebrows slightly, but didn't comment further. "Pete from Barrack 2, charged with uncivilized conduct." Anora looked confused. "That's law speak for stealing."  
  
"I think that's what I'm here for," Anora told him. "I can't really think of anything else I've done." She shrugged.  
  
Pete smirked. "You'd be amazed what some of the people here are charged with. You know Amerhyst, the girl in your barrack?"   
  
Anora frowned, trying to remember. "Is she tall, dark haired one?" Pete nodded. "Yeah, she was telling me about the guard. What's she here for?"  
  
Pete grinned. "Trying to escape." Anora's frowned deepened, trying to understand. "Her parents died a few years ago and her cousin works here, so she often stayed here. Anyhow, she got to know some of the 'convicts' and helped them escape. They escaped the second time, but she didn't and her cousin himself left her here."  
  
Anora's frowned changed into a look of pity as she thought about her own parents. "No wonder," she muttered, thinking about the girl's defeatess attidude. "I should get back...I have a 'meeting.'" Her look darkened at the word. She didn't like Master Christof's seemingly unreasonable attention on her. Pete looked about to comment, but instead smiled.  
  
"With Master Christof? Good luck," he wished her, green eyes twinkling. Anora scowed as she turned. What did everybody else know that she didn't?  
Pete saw her scowl and smiled. "I've never met him, but I'm s'posed to later. All the boys in my barrack are giving me trouble 'bout it. Me 'n Chang are the only two there that haven't been tested."  
Anora pondered that as she stepped back out into the walled sunlight. How often did Christof come? Once a year? Once every eight moons? Once a moon? And speaking of Master Christof, what was that damn aura of his? What exactly did he test?  
  
She remembered, at the side gate, the guard saying something about 'future mages.' Was he a mage then?  
  
Anora sighed and stopped, leaning back again the barrack door. The sky was a brilliant blue, casting vivid light all across the grounds. Nota single cloud could be seen anywhere. It was the first season, Anora guessed, maybe second or third moon. She'd lost track of time since the the fire, the break in. That had been in the last moon of Autumn, so she must have been gone six or seven moons. Half a year.  
  
  
She reached down to her faded leather boots. They were the last things she had from her other life, and they were no longer in the optimal condition they had once been in. Well, one of two things.  
  
Her hand rested on the small gold coin the guards had failed to recognize or take. Thick and round, one side carved with a watchful, rearing Pegasus, the other reading Filia Argento Domo Serafinis. Daughter of the Silver House of Serafin.  
  
Anora shoved the coin back into her boot, eyes resting on the large building Shawn the guard had indicated. The Serafin family used to have a mage. Anora had never talked much to him; he was old and aloof, with a nasty smile. Anora had grown with the idea that this was how all mages were. If Master Christof was one, he condridicted this theory. He was young,despite his silver hair, and he hadn't been dry and stingy, but instead full of life. Anora wouldn't have guessed he was more than twenty five years old.  
  
She glanced at the sun, remembering what her tutor had taught her about time. Two marks past noon. That was when the guard told her she was supposed to see the supposed mage.   
  
Well, I'm late. Anora gave a small smile. Hope they aren't testing for puntuality.  
  
Master Christof was talking to Shawn and another burly guard when she arrived. She shivered slightly. The second guard had the grimace and dark eyes of some of the assasins she'd met.  
  
"Aha!" Master Christof stood up, his dark eyes dancing. "It is Anora who has no last name!" Anora sneered slightly. "Please, have a seat." He nodded to the two guards, who left, the new one with a scowl and Shawn with a wink.  
  
"Well." This was all Christof said before settling back into his chair and scribbling some notes down on a sheet of parchment. The office was small and cramped, and clearly not used often. The mage looked up and noticed her gaze and smiled. "Yes, I know, I'd take it as an insult if I didn't know all the offices here were like this." The corners of his mouth curled up into a smile.  
  
He returned to his writing and Anora sullenly pulled her feet up onto the chair. Christof regarded her with a lifted eyebrow. "Usually I'd be testing you for mage ability, but as it happens, I already have." He paused, and Anora cut in.  
  
"So why am I here?" Anora did her best to mke her voice sound bored and annoyed. Miss Arnice's etiquett class, lesson two.  
  
Master Christof smiled at her, pretending he hadn't noticed her hostility. "Don't you want to hear the results?" Anora scowled. Despite herself, she did.  
  
"Hmm..." The mage mused, peering over the notes he had just written. "Let's see...very strong seventh sense, I had to tune down my aura so not to hurt her... her own aura is a mixture of blue and gold...highly unusual, I shall have to research that... probably represtenting an affinity with water, and possibly Creatures." He looked up at her through grey tinted glasses.  
  
"All of which means...?" Anora lifted her eyebrows.  
  
"In plain terms, you're coming with me to Belseri to become a mage, probably of blue rank." He smiled. "I shall see you later, obviously, but for now I have to meet with you're peers." It was obviously a dismissal. Anora stood up to leave.  
  
"Oh, would you please send in ... Julianna Aranghai, and then Amerhyst Noel?" The mage was no longer looking at her. Anora scowled and left. 


End file.
